How Successul App Startups Keep Their Users Engaged Throughout Their Journey

February 15, 2017 1072

There has never been a better time in the history for app startups to establish a profitable business. Consumers are striving for the instant and on demand services to get things done. In fact, this has bred consumers to hop from service to service, and be loyal only to the one which is best in simplicity, saves their time, and values them.

This means, app startups need to keep experimenting continuously with new ideas to keep their users engaged. However, new data has shown that losing 80% of your app user base is normal. So, if you think your app startup is dying, don’t lose hope just yet. Take these consumer demands as a learning opportunity and focus on treating them as they desired to be treated.

Yelp, which falls under Travel and Local app category, allows to discover nearby restaurants, shops, and other service providers with filter search to find out price, distance, and what’s open. In fact, Yelp recently launched a new feature with the simple, self-explanatory name Questions and Answers. In this feature, they allow users to ask a broad range of questions, and other users can answer them.

These questions and answers are tied to each specific venue to make it stand out from general Q&A products. For instance, users can ask if a restaurant cooks special dish on request or not, then they can get answers from the users or the business owners themselves. Here’s another example:

Brian Boshes, Product Manager of Yelp described this feature as a way for people to ask any questions that are important to them. Further, he said that this provides valuable data for Yelp about what users are looking for.

Though, Yelp released this feature to limited cities late last year, but as users are engaging with Yelp more and more, they are now rolling out this feature nationwide on iPhone, Android, and on Desktop.

Similar to Yelp, app startups that are witnessing decrease can also restore virtue to your users and re-gain loyalty.

Create Value For Your Customers

Every business, enterprise, and app startups need to craft a customer value proposition. A customer value proposition states why customers wants to do business with you, and what sets your brand apart from your competition. So, crafting an effective customer value proposition can help guide every business decision you make.

Take Apple for example. The company is famous for creating most innovative products that consumers didn’t even knew whether they’ll want them or not. But, now, millions of people can’t leave without their products.

So, how did Apple do this?

Every single day, they listen closely to what their customers have to say. Then, they create a simplified solution what most people always desire to have.

Similarly for app startups, find out what users want, what they’re looking for, and incorporate that into your app updates.

Personalized User Communications

Now, when it’s the matter about user communications, we don’t mean to send out those weekly, mass emails, which by the way, only reinforce a customer’s feeling that they’re not being valued individually. User engagement only rises with personalized communication. Therefore, you must apply user engagement strategies that include following steps.

So, once you’ve created your personalized user engagement strategy, next step is to create a distribute content to target each segment you’ve created. Remember, your content must be relevant that generate interest in your product. Although, don’t be afraid of experimenting. You could also try new channels of communication such as social networks, in-app messaging, or through notifications to keep your users engaged.

Lastly…Treat Your Customers Like They Matter

In this digital era, customer service has become an essential differentiating factor for meeting customer demands and providing value.

As a matter of fact, the European Journal of Marketing found that customers cut ties with a business or company for following two reasons:

They feel that they were treated poorly.

They feel that their problem was not solved in timely manner.

An effective strategy for customer service removes all the barrier to user engagement, and serves customers in efficient manner that ultimately builds trust.

For example, once you find who your customers are, let them decide the channel of communication such as whether they’ll self-serve or they need live chat. Provide your customer service on whatever channel they prefer to use. If most of your users are on mobile, create a mobile app by hiring mobile app development company, and update your customers on every step of your journey by notifying through the mobile app.